SIX men have told a court how they chased and caught a man suspected of attacking a prostitute.

Michael Dodd is accused of kidnapping the 29-year-old woman and assaulting her in the red light district of Middlesbrough.

It is claimed that he armed himself with a claw hammer and a kitchen knife before the alleged attack last October.

Teesside Crown Court heard that Mr Dodd, 25, was chased by two passers-by after they heard a woman screaming for help.

Carl Doyle yesterday told the jury that he and pal Darren Genery chased Mr Dodd after hearing the woman "screaming for her life". The pair - who are both homeless - caught him and pinned him to the ground on the central reservation of the nearby A66.

A car stopped and four men who were returning from a five-a-side football match got out to help. Police arrived soon after, but Mr Dodd denied hurting the woman.

He said he had been pestered for sex as he walked in the St Hilda's area, but pushed the woman away, and fled when she started screaming.

Mr Dodd told police he carried the knife for protection, but claimed the hammer must have belonged to one of his pursuers.

Richard Bennett, mitigating, yesterday suggested Mr Genery carried a hammer to break up scrap he collected from skips. But Mr Doyle said the tool fell from Mr Dodd's hand when he was knocked to the ground in the centre of the dual-carriageway.

Footballers Wayne Rigg, Lee Kennedy, Jack Griffiths and Nathan Gray all said in statements that the hammer fell from Mr Dodd's clothing when he was hauled to his feet by police.

Mr Dodd, of Parliament Road, Middlesbrough, denies kidnap, possessing the hammer, assault by penetration and kidnap with intent to commit a sexual offence on October 5 last year.

The jury has heard that he was convicted and jailed for three years in 2000 for kidnap and assault after trying to drag a 15-year-old girl onto wasteground near Hartlepool town centre.

The Middlesbrough prostitute claims she was punched by Mr Dodd, who then tried to drag her into bushes before he ripped off her underwear and touched her sexually.

The trial continues.